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Hypercritical me

Walking through the Interieur 08 halls of Kortrijk Xpo last weekend, I could not help but feeling disappointed. Funnily enough, that same event was a source of great excitement over a decade ago. 'Design' in those days, or at least in my memory, was stimulating, refreshing, unseen, innovative. This time both my wife and I had a feeling of 'been there, seen that'.

Is it because  already numerous images of furniture, interior and other design have occupied a place in our memories? Probably. But nevertheless: walking through the aisles of the fair, we both had a similar sensation of... well, boredom. Giant booths, expensive no doubt, with often a great number of staff dressed in the appropriate outfit. Lively? Yes. But lacking soul.

The same type of slick design, catering to that part of the population that is not yet worried by what seems to become one of the major economic crises of our times. Durlet, Hülsta, Obumex... You name the big brands: they were there alright. And no doubt many potential customers paid them a visit. But did they in any way contribute to the future of design? Were they able to display anything close to a vision of where design is headed in the years to come?Did they prove their willingness to invest in creativity and talent? I may have missed it, but I don't think so.

The only place where we felt that same excitement that used to drive us to Interieur all those years ago, was the basement. Here, in the underground, where the Young Designers Fair had been given a place, was the beating heart of Interieur 08 if you ask me. Tucked away safely, as to not draw too much attention away from the big brands upstairs. In my opinion, however, this should have been the focal point of the entire fair. The refreshing and sometimes even naive concepts of the designers here could have provided just the mirror the big boys need.

I know organisers of a fair have commercial considerations, but a little bit of audacity has never hurt anybody. Especially not if you call your event 'biennale for CREATIVE  interior design'...

Old-fashioned me

We had sume geust letcurers over at the college the ohter day. some intreesting presentations, I have to amdit. Beside remainding me of hou strainng it is to be a stjudent and having to siit and litsen an entir day to somebdy presinting in the fornt (yes, iwas in the audience for change), the expeirence also tauht me that powrful PowerPoints are not al that evident.

Apart from that, I cannot say I was not just a little bit annoyed by the (many) typos in some of the presentations I saw. Weren't you just now, reading the paragraph above? Exactly... For the people who know Dutch: the dreaded 'dt error' was available too, in different sizes and colours. Not to mention the lack of capitals where needed, or just plainly misspelled words.

I know: I'm blinkered when it comes to Dutch. And young people don't really care that much about spelling; who needs it when you read text messages anyway? But frankly, I don't give a donkey's arse about arguments like that.

When you present, you are there for and because of your audience. You reserve their respect, but the same goes vice versa. And the least you can do, is not make their brains do overtime by drawing their attention away from your message by slightly (or not so slightly) annoying mistakes. Mind: everybody makes mistakes. Yes, so do I. But at least don't make people think you didn't want to take the time to check your slides and remove the mistakes as much as possible. My guess is peopel wil feal mutch more apreccitaed!

Note: this post is not about any of the presentations in particular. Besides: my guess is nobody reads this blog anyway, so they'll never know... :-)